The Exhibition (2010)

The Border Farm workshops resulted in hundreds of photographs, pages of writing, and many hours of videoed performances, all the work of the Dulibadzimu Theatre Group. Some of this work was exhibited in the Border Farm exhibitions and in the video with the same name.

The aim of the exhibition (which was comprised mainly of photographs) was to create a space for Zimbabwean migrant workers to tell their stories, and to provide a platform for displaying these real-life narratives in South Africa. A key concept for the exhibition was to make a show that would present the creative process of the project, but also be an incisive artistic reflection of the stories and day-to-day life on the farm. We wanted it to be not only a community art project, but also a show of work that would stand up as “art” in a critical art world.

The defining theme of the exhibition was “life in-between” – the pressures, challenges, absurdities and opportunities of living in liminal zones, neither here nor there. The river is a powerful symbol of “in-betweenness”, and crossing it a powerful metaphor for passage and catharsis, and as such became central image of the show (in both video and photography).

The exhibition was held both at the Bag Factory Gallery in Johannesburg (2010) and in the Musina Municipal Buildings (2010 - 2011)

Artwork by The Dulibadzimu Theatre Group, Raymond Marlowe and Thenjiwe Nkosi.

Exhibition curated by Thenjiwe Nkosi